


A Little Too Sweet

by Darkhymns



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Cooking, Gen, Humor, Implied Lloyd/Colette, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 06:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15880053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkhymns/pseuds/Darkhymns
Summary: Lloyd gets a bit obsessive when making Colette's favorite meals.Genis never wants to see another piece of strawberry ever again.





	A Little Too Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> It was Tales of Symphonia's anniversary a few days ago! (Which I forgot about!) This was all I had as a short fic for it, so think of it as being made for the anniversary. Maybe. This story serves no actual purpose and is just humor for humor's sake. Enjoy anyway.

Getting through Latheon Gorge was both frustrating and confusing (especially when the weird wind gusts from the vibrating flowers that dotted the landscape just didn’t seem to _work)_ but after a long trek, the whole party decided to settle down for both rest and sustenance.

Unfortunately, almost (and key word, almost) no one was looking forward to it.

“Hey!” Lloyd shouted from the side of the glade they all sat in, his face beaming. “Just got lunch ready!”

Genis, seated by the grass, gave a deep sigh. “Is it fruit salad agai-”

“It’s fruit salad! Everyone dig in!”

The boy in red had a huge platter held in his hands. It was stacked with rows of neatly cut slices of pineapple, strawberries, apples, lemons and oranges, and was sprinkled with a wide assortment of blackberries here and there, with occasional almonds to add in some more texture to the softness of the meal. Some of the group gave weak smiles, some looked to the ground tiredly, but only one had her eyes lit up at the sight.

“That looks so good, Lloyd!” Colette sat neatly on the ground, just before the dining cloth. “Oh! You even made part of the salad into a cute little doggy face!”

“Heh, yep!” Lloyd set down, admiring his own handiwork in the culinary arts. “That’s what the blackberries were for! To make the nose and eyes!”

“…Is this why you sent me out into the woods to search for those?” Zelos asked incredulously. His clothing looked a little frayed. Even his hair sported the occasional twig. “That took me like two hours!”

“Yeah, but it was important!”

“Lloyd…” Genis started, looking at his bowl that Lloyd was happily dumping some of the fruit into. “Do you think you can like… I don’t know… let me cook next time?”

“I don’t mind making stuff for you guys!” Lloyd proclaimed.

Sheena had to intervene. “Yeah, but, we’ve only had fruit for the past three weeks.”

“Fruit is very healthy for you,” Presea commented. She dumped some kind of sauce onto her bowl that no one really knew what it consisted of.

“And also very sweet!” Colette smiled with happiness after each bite. “Oh! Maybe we can make fruit sandwiches next time?”

Lloyd gave her a thumbs up. “Yeah, no problem!”

“That is not a thing.” Genis glared at both of his friends. “That is not a thing that you make. I don’t care.”

“Presea is right however.” Regal had his bowl very close to his face, courtesy of his shackled hands just making everything difficult for him. “Fruit is healthy. It provides your daily value of fiber.”

“We’ve had plenty of fiber!” Genis tried his best not to shout, but that was the result of being force-fed all assortments of fruits for an extended period of time. “ _Too much fiber!_ Sis! Say something!”

Raine was munching pleasantly on her share. “There are lemon wedges. I suppose it’s satisfactory enough.” She gave her little brother a frown. “Even if Lloyd stops making us food, it’s not like I would ever have a chance to experiment with meals of my own, according to everyone’s complaints.”

For Genis, it was either food boredom or actual death. He wasn’t sure what was worse.

“Well, _I’m_ not complaining. My bud is a master at this stuff! And-” Zelos squinted at his bowl, mussing it around with his fork. “Um, no uh, no melons?”

A familiar groan from a familiar ninja. “Of course you miss your damn melons.”

“Oh! I forgot about that, Zelos! Don’t worry. I made you your own dish!”

Zelos was close to having tears in his eyes. To think that his friend would do that for him. The venture out into the woods to collect ingredients for Colette’s doggy portrait was completely forgotten. “Aw, Lloyd!”

“Here you go!” Lloyd plopped the prepared dish in front of Zelos. “Eat up!”

It was fried octopus. A really big one. A really big, fleshy looking, eye bulging octopus.

The dish also had with it some tuna and red snappers to the side, but… the tentacles of the octopus were… touching them…

“Oh, that looks pretty good.” Sheena pointed at the plate, her mouth full. “Got your own seafood platter there.”

Zelos sat there in dejection. “…Yeah.”

Genis saw how it was. He could always see through his best friend, and these past three weeks had made it all the more obvious. But this didn’t mean that Lloyd should subject the others to constant fruity meals just to impress a girl that didn’t even need impressing!

He scuttled close to Lloyd, trying to drag him away from his conversation with Colette with all the force his little arms could muster.

Lloyd turned to him with confusion. “Genis? What is it?”

“Lloyd, you need to stop,” the child stated. “The fruit cocktails were pretty cool at first, until you kept making them four nights in a row. That _fruit sculpture_ was honestly neat, but it took you like half the day to make it and you didn’t even sleep because of it! Also, you can’t make sandwiches, Lloyd. We all know this. Don’t try to make fruit sandwiches. I don’t care what the Wonder Chef told you, he’s completely wrong. Don’t you miss eating beef, Lloyd? Like actual protein? We can’t live off fruit for the rest of this journey!”

Lloyd blinked. He gave a brief glance to Colette, who looked to be in heaven with her meal, then he turned back to Genis. “But I gotta.”

“No. No, you don’t.”

“Colette likes it.”

“She can handle some beef stew once in a while! If this is about making up for not getting her birthday present on time-!”

“Hey, Zelos!” Lloyd shouted suddenly, looking past Genis’ head. “How do you like that dish?”

There was the distant sound of Zelos sobbing.

“Great!”

“Lloyd,” Genis pleaded. “Please listen to reason. I don’t think my digestion can take it anymore. I don’t know how the heck you and Colette can.”

Lloyd looked back down at his own fruit share, already half-eaten. To the side of it, some lemon wedges and apple slices were pushed to the side, looking like someone’s face and long hair. Oh no.

“But I gotta,” Lloyd said, more to himself than to Genis.

Genis put his face in his hands. “I want to die.”

* * *

A week later and they were finally back at Altessa’s after some important events happened, but honestly, Genis was past both caring and remembering what they were. He had been pushing through fatigue the entire time, having had no iron intake in the slightest.

Even his sister was looking paler than usual, leaning on her staff as they all stumbled into the house carved into the mountain. “I’m going to take a long nap,” she muttered.

Tabatha greeted them at the door, her robotic motions having long gotten used to by everyone. “Hello. I was. Just making dinner. Roast. Beef. With potatoes. And garnish. Would you like-”

 _“Please,”_ Sheena uttered, falling to the floor in a heap. The malnutrition was finally catching up to people. Even Regal and Presea could barely hold their taciturn composures, their eyes lighting up on the thought of actual cooked food on their plates. Zelos was not technically starving, but he was suffering plenty, choking on his octopus-fruit cocktail that Lloyd had insisted on him eating on the way back for some reason.

Of course, Lloyd and Colette were perfectly fine! Just peachy! They were both eating actual peaches at this very moment that Genis was so tempted on burning up with his fire magic. “I’m full now, but thanks Tabatha!” Lloyd told her.

Colette nodded. “Me too! Oh!” She stood up straight after thinking up a… oh no. “Lloyd, do you know how to make peach cobbler?”

 _“Do I?”_ Lloyd said to her eagerly. After a moment, he emphasized his answer when she still waited for it. “Yeah, I do.”

“What if we make some for everybody for dessert?”

Lloyd pumped a fist in the air. “That sounds great!”

Usually such a treat would be enough to make any mouth salivate. But all Genis wanted to do was hurl. _No more fruit… please…_

When Genis failed to convince Lloyd to stop with the meals, he just fell to fate. After everything Lloyd did to save Colette, it made sense that he would try to make up for lost time, to make Colette feel happy, despite the hardships of the journey. When one thought about it, it was rather sweet and romantic. Making her favorite dishes whenever he had the chance to, and as luck would have it, Colette never getting sick of it once! Not! _Once!_

Genis kinda hated Lloyd a little right now.

Watching his two dearest friends make their way to the kitchen with Tabatha, a dark thought burrowed in his mind.

_Once this journey is over, Lloyd, I’ll make some fruit dishes for you all right. It’s your favorite thing now, isn’t it? I’ll sneak in some grape tomatoes for you. Colette likes those, but you’re going to hate it. And you can’t hate it because it’s a fruit. You’ll have to gulp it down for Colette’s sake! Then you’ll be sorry!_

But even Genis knew he would never follow through on his revenge plan. In the end, he was just tired. Besides, if he was getting a real meal today, he supposed more fruit in his already fruit-saturated diet wouldn’t be too bad.

He could just send a fireball Lloyd’s way in their next battle anyway. Say it was a mistake. Maybe singe Lloyd’s hair a little. That was good enough revenge for Genis, and he would take it gladly.


End file.
